Creative campaigns against new course

[1]

Though they have their exams just a couple of days away, the students of Delhi University have something else on mind. They have taken to streets to protest against the new four-year baccalaureate programme that is being introduced in Delhi University this year. They claim that they are fighting for a bigger cause.
Talking about the protest, Amartya Ghosh, 20, History Hons Ist year student of Ramjas College says, “I am not going to suffer this four-year academic programme. However, the next batch will be affected as they will have to spend one extra year to do the same graduation at an extra cost when it is already becoming difficult to sustain three years of college. Also, when I saw how arbitrarily and undemocratically the whole programme was imposed, I became a part of the protest.”
Ragini Jha, a IInd year Philosophy Honours student at St. Stephen’s College says they are adopting different mediums to protest. “We have made our protest innovative and interactive. Students and teachers have formed groups like Joint Action Board (JAB) and are doing a lot of activities under it. We have organised marches at different Metro stations and Dilli Haat, written open letters, signed number of petitions and sent them to the PM and the President. Then we are doing street plays, band and song performances. Recently, one of the students, Ashley Tellis did a stand up comedy act on the subject, Giti Chandra wrote couple of songs that Nandita Narain sang. There were a number of acts by the teachers and students ridiculing the four-year programme besides distributing leaflets and placards. We have also made Bakwaas-laureate, a spoof on the baccalaureate degrees,” shares Ragini.
Abha Dev Habib, Physics professor at Miranda House and an active face of Democratic Teachers Front is seen mobilising the students at different colleges. “Being a professor and EC member, it was not easy for me to be part of the protest. The fear of suspension hangs on my head and I have often got shouted at during the council meetings, but I could not let go,” says Abha who is also a member of the team that started Save DU campaign.
“We are organising debates, marches and regular student teachers interaction to highlight the drawbacks of this four-year programme. We are preparing for something bigger for May 7,” she adds.
“We want people to understand the problems we will face if we enroll ourselves in this programme. It is not just the extra cost; it is about wasting a year of your life. IITs and IIMs are not going to turn their courses in one year programmes to accommodate a year of our lives,” says Tanish Gupta, an engineering student.